Papiss Cisse’s natural ability gave Alan Pardew belief

Alan Pardew said he never lost faith in Papiss Cisse after the back‑in-form striker fired Newcastle into the Europa League quarter-finals.

Cisse, who scored a 92nd-minute Premier League winner against Stoke on Sunday, left it two minutes longer to strike against Anzhi Makhachkala at St James’ Park and clinch a 1-0 aggregate victory.

Prior to the Stoke game, Cisse had scored only once in seven matches but Pardew knew his man would come good again.

“When you have a natural goalscorer, then you need to create chances and he hasn’t been blessed with in the last two games,” said the Newcastle boss. “Having said that, we had a run of games here where he had loads of chances and didn’t score, and that’s how sometimes it goes for a striker.

“We kept saying, ‘He keeps getting into position, but not scoring’. This week, he had only two really good chances and scored them both.”